Criticism mounts of NHS social marketing drive, fuelled by Fleet Street confusion - North West Media News

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Criticism mounts of NHS social marketing drive, fuelled by Fleet Street confusion

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Monday, 20 July 2009

The NHS North West's drive to improve the health of the region's population through a sustained social marketing campaign is seemingly coming under attack from numerous London-based newspapers - newspapers that seem to have misinterpreted what social marketing actually means.

£30m on Twitter?

How-Do first broke the news that the NHS was looking to create a roster of agencies to launch the initiative in October, before confirming which agencies had made it onto the framework late last month.

Real social marketing

Titles such as The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Star have since jumped on the story, seemingly attracted by the headline figure of £30m; a budget earmarked as the potential amount the framework could take advantage of over the course of its three to four year existence.

However, rather than focusing on the kind of social marketing that encompasses changing behavioural patterns and improving health, the titles have interpreted the term as social marketing in a 'networking' sense - hence the Daily Stars headline 'NHS Twits Blow £30m on Net Ads' (followed by the opening "NHS bosses have been slammed for blowing £30million on Twitter and Facebook campaigns. Instead of building a hospital, the huge sum is earmarked for social networking.")

The Daily Telegraph took a similar tone in its coverage, conjuring up the headline - 'Health officials to spend £30 million on Twitter and Facebook marketing campaign'.

A complete misunderstanding

Industry insiders have been in touch with How-Do to voice their concern at what they see as "a complete misunderstanding of what social marketing means in this context".

Some fear that this 'tabloid style frenzy' in a time of increased scrutiny of public spending could lead to NHS organisations who were keen to embrace the medium actually retreating from the framework.

The NHS, for its part, seemed to be chiefly concerned with playing down the £30m figure when contacted by How-Do, rather than concentrating on the misperceptions of what social marketing means.

Cost savings ahead

Stubbing out health problems

“It appears that the figure quoted was based upon an estimate of the possible combined social marketing spend of some of the 64 individual NHS organizations based in the North West over the course of the next four years," said Elaine Darbyshire, the director of strategic communications NHS North West

"However there is no indication at all at present that the actual spend will reach anything like the sum mentioned."

She continued: "As pressure on public spending intensifies the health service will be looking to make increased cost savings were it can and deliver even better value.

"We understand the important role social marketing can play in helping people to consider the benefits of changing behaviors in relation to health and adopting healthier lifestyles; we will continue to work with colleagues across our region to help them to produce well constructed, effective campaigns that give both best value and the best outcomes for the people they serve”.

A host of regional agencies such as McCann Erickson Manchester, ICE, BJL and The Hub stand to benefit from the framework.

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Comments (14)

1 By Lisa Myers , on 20-07-2009 09:23
It's typical of the papers to blow this out of proportion because of their own ignorance about something. Social Media Marketing is not just about social networks such as facebook and twitter. These networks are simply just tools in a social media marketing campaign. It's a bit like saying that you are going to build a house simply by holding the hammer!

It frustrates me that so many people misunderstand the meaning of social media marketing. It's understandable that misconception will occur with a new dicipline like social media marketing but just how wrong can they be. I suppose it's no wonder when the press keeps on misinterpreting it. IN fact it got me so worked up I wrote a blogpost myself about what Social Media really is (in my eyes), "Double Tall Skinny Non Dairy Social Media To go Please" http://www.searchcowboys.com/columns/751

I'm pretty sure the NHS thought it through when they considered social media marketing as part of their strategy, and I'm pretty sure the agencies that have pitches for this don't think they are going to spend 30 mil on twitter and facebook. At least I bloody hope so.

I'm happy to do a seminar to these journalist to educate them about Social Media (and SEO at the same time as they dont' get that either)..

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2 By Steve Downes , on 20-07-2009 10:11
The national press commenting on digital marketing is as credible as financial advice fronBernard Madoff.
As they deperatelty try to catch up and learn about the digital landscape (mostly too late) they are thrashing about for scapegoats.

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3 By slacker, on 20-07-2009 10:57
I think this story will have started life at a news agency or with a freelance journalist who will have put a spin on it to get the attention of national news editors. Lazy? Yes. A co-ordinated attack from the Press about this sort of activity? Probably not. But at a time when there is talk of slashing the NHS budget by 20%, these sorts of things do need looking at - after all, there's little proof they work

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4 By Stuart Bruce , on 20-07-2009 13:48
It doesn't help that neither that most of the commentators also appear to totally not understand what social marketing is. It has no relationship to social media whatsoever, apart that social media and online social networks might be one of the many channels used.

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5 By Mr_Osato, on 20-07-2009 13:50
"Some fear that this 'tabloid style frenzy' in a time of increased scrutiny of public spending could lead to NHS organisations who were keen to embrace the medium actually retreating from the framework"

Let's hope so - this and any other NHS/state propaganda marketing drive. The one thing more annoying than being pounded with advertising telling me what to think (and tries to 'change my behavioural patterns - a stunningly Orwellian phrase if ever I heard one) is being pounded with adverts from health fascists that I'm paying for.

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6 By Pete, on 20-07-2009 19:03
Completely agree with Stuart Bruce. Social Marketing in the context of the above campaign is not a case of social media networks and blogs, but more a case of changing behavioural attitudes.

A full understanding of the campaign may have helped ...

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7 By Twitt T'woo, on 21-07-2009 15:58
Spending millions of pounds on preaching to people about their health is money wasted in any medium. But how typical of the NHS to fall for the twaddle of the Twitterati.

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8 By anon, on 22-07-2009 18:12
So this is UHSM/creativeconcern's idea of "engaging with people"! Looks like the papers got it spot on then!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djuKC7DGvrY

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9 By Robin Wilson, on 23-07-2009 11:36
It seems that the newspapers mentioned have got very carried away with the amount of cash that is being spent on communicating govt services that are designed to help people - rather than talking about how social marketing initiatives actually help people. I hope this sensationalist reporting doesn't deter the NHS from continuing to try new ways to engage people in change around social issues.
I think the worrying thing is that the newspapers don't know the difference between social marketing and social media and have just played on the hype around a few social media tools.
It's a shame they don't mention how cost effective social media and the internet in general is to reach audiences on social issues.

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10 By Paul Fabretti , on 23-07-2009 12:22
@robin...or how social media tools are actually helping to bring awareness of NHS support services and treatments where the audience IS rather than posters and leaflets in places where people only go to when they are ill.

But then, as you say, that's not much of a headline is it.

On the flip side though, I honestly hope that whichever agency is selected to perform some of the soc med work, doesn't assume that Social Ads on Facebook are the answer...they have some of the lowest CTR's of any online ad...

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11 By Stephen Bray, on 24-07-2009 11:52
I remember that How Do has made this mistake when it originally reported on this roster. The problem comes from the lack of consensus (mostly in the US) as to how to refer to and distinguish between what we refer to as 'social marketing' and 'marketing using social media'.

This is demonstrated by Lisa Myers, the first respondent to this article who is clearly still talking about 'marketing using social media'. What we're talking about here isn't new - social marketing is a term coined by Phillip Kotler in the 1970s and it is the application of commercially tested marketing principles for a social aim (e.g. smoking cessation, drink driving, alcohol abuse).

Of course, Facebook could be used in the resultant 'campaign', if the research tells you that it will help you push your identified audience towards your specified behavioural goal. But by the same token, your tactics might be a change in the way that a service is delivered, a media relations push, an advertising campaign or direct marketing.

The chosen methods do not define whether something is social marketing or not, it's the process you use to select them.

There are a number of practitioners of social marketing that are unable to articulate exactly what social marketing is either. I remember a senior member of one large consultancy with respectable social marketing credentials trying to tell me that you could tell whether something was social marketing or not by how engaging a poster is.

I would recommend www.nsms.org.uk and a book by Gerard Hastings called 'Social Marketing - why should the devil have all the best tunes' for anyone who wants to know more.

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12 By Brian, on 24-07-2009 12:28
Surely the NHS should keep quiet and not promote itself? Most of its financial problems stem from people wanting and expecting more than it was initially designed for. As for promoting a healthier lifestyle that sensible initiative would surely make better sense if it was handled by the Education departments?

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13 By Larry Harding, on 28-07-2009 14:07
Stop dismissing "tabloid style frenzy". These papers are the best selling products in the land on a daily basis.
I figure they got it right. The NHS should not be spending £30m over however many years on social networking.
Pour this money into education and let the NHS get on with the job of caring for the sick.
The NHS is also top-heavy with staff and consultants and this is just an outrageous example of it. Crazy

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14 By Nigel Hughes , on 28-07-2009 16:45
Leaving the social media/ social marketing/ semantics/ veryimportantmarketingstuff debate aside for a minute, a PR team somewhere will be thinking they should have foreseen the twits-splash-£30m-on-facebook type headlines that have come back to haunt them. Perhaps digital PR folk have forgotten how newspapers work.

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